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The Exoplorer seminar in photometry of exoplanet transits starts in mid-January of 2023. Students must complete the IntroSTARS

BRIEF will continue its three-part online student research seminar program in 2023. The three online seminars in astrometry, photometry, and python are the core of the BRIEF program which began with DoubleSTARS in 2015.

In November 2022 Pat Boyce was elected to a three-year term on the Board of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). He founded BRIEF, a non-profit, in 2013 to introduce students to the scientific community through research in astronomy. He and his students have been active participants in the AAVSO and its programs.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a three-year grant to the San Diego State University (SDSU) Astronomy Department in September 2022. The grant, “Comprehensive Analysis of Period Changes in Eclipsing Binaries as a Probe of Stellar Astrophysics” will use changes in the orbital periods of eclipsing binary stars to measure their interior structure.

In June 2022 BRIEF joined InStAR to conduct a two-day student research experience at Mt. Wilson Observatory (MWO). Twenty Boyce-Astro students performed speckle interferometry observations of binary stars using MWO’s 60” telescope, the world’s largest just over a century ago.

The Downing Family Operating Foundation generously donated a PlaneWave CDK17 research grade telescope to BRIEF in May 2022. Located at Sierra Remote Observatory (SRO), the telescope, mounted on a PlaneWave L-500 mount and equipped with a QHY600 camera, will serve as a platform to advance robotic speckle interferometry and astrometry as well as extend the Boyce-Astro exoplanet observation program.